Fisher's Light

by Tara Sivec

  My anger grows as I walk through town. By the time I get to the inn, I can barely focus as I strip out of my wet, dirty clothes and get into the shower. I don’t want to let that man ruin how good I feel after telling Stanford off, but I can’t help it. His words circle around my brain and fester until they’re all I can think about.

  Chapter 32

  Fisher

  Present Day

  “Shouldn’t you be down at the beach? The fireworks are going to start soon.”

  I don’t even glance up at Trip as he comes out the door on the small deck attached to the back of his house. I’ve been sitting here staring out at the ocean, feeling sorry for myself, and I plan on doing that for the rest of the night.

  “I heard there was quite the commotion down at the ball game today. Is that why you’ve been sitting out here pouting like a toddler all afternoon?” Trip asks as he sits down on the top step next to me.

  “I’m not pouting,” I complain.

  “There are seagulls circling overhead, waiting to take a shit on that bottom lip you’ve got sticking out. You’re pouting.”

  I use my middle finger to scratch the side of my face and Trip snorts. “Your maturity level astounds me. Get off your ass, go to the beach and see Lucy. I’d like to sit here on my porch and enjoy the quiet night without listening to you sigh like a lovesick teenage girl every five seconds.”

  Turning my head, I glare at him and he raises his eyebrow and glares right back.

  “If you heard about the commotion at the game today, then I’m sure you know why there’s no point in going to see Lucy,” I remind him.

  Trip laughs right in my face. “Since when did you turn into such a pussy? I thought Marines were bad asses who didn’t take no for an answer? Last time I checked, she didn’t walk down the aisle and say ‘I do’ this afternoon. Strap on those balls the military gave you and go get your woman back.”

  It’s pretty sad that my eighty-three year old grandfather needs to remind me that I have balls. I felt like I’d been castrated the minute Shit-For-Brains-Ford got down on one knee earlier. I knew they’d been dating for a couple months, but I had no idea things were so serious between her and that fuck head. I thought I had time to make her fall in love with me again, but I should have known better. She’s not the type of woman that you let slip through your fingers, and I feel like an ass because Shartford realized that before me. He jumped on the opportunity that I pushed away. I have to give him credit for being smart about that, at least.

  “I can’t get her back when she doesn’t want to come back,” I tell him.

  Trip shakes his head at me. “How can you be so smart about everything else, but so stupid when it comes to Lucy? If you’d pulled your head out of your ass and stuck around that ball park for a little while, you would’ve seen better fireworks than the ones they’re about to shoot off down on that beach.”

  I turn my head to face him in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

  Trip pushes himself up from the step and flicks me on the head. “Pull this thing out of your rear end and go find out.”

  He turns and walks into the house without another word.

  I stand off to the side of all the people lying on blankets and sitting on chairs around small beach fires, waiting for the fireworks to begin. This was a stupid idea, a really stupid idea. So far, I’ve had no less than ten people ask me if I heard what happened to Lucy after the game. Why do these people think I want to rehash that shit? Do they think I don’t give a shit about her and wouldn’t care that she gave up on us and moved on with someone else? When I put on a fake smile and nod at them, they start laughing and tell me how “fucking awesome” it was. Clearly, this town really hasn’t forgiven me for the crap I pulled last year and now they want to torture me.

  Figuring there’s no point in sticking around and cursing Trip for making me curious enough to come down to this damn beach, I start to leave when I see Lucy making her way down the beach towards me, dodging blankets and chairs and barely glancing at the people who call out to her. She’s looking right at me as she moves and suddenly I’m frozen in place, staring at her.

  She’s wearing a pale yellow, strapless sundress that hugs her torso and flows out around her hips, the hem hitting her mid-thigh. Her hair is curled in soft waves and is hanging loose around her shoulders. She looks like a warrior going into battle as she skirts around the fires and the light from the flames flickers across her face. I’m so mesmerized by how gorgeous she looks that I momentarily forget she’s wearing another man’s ring on her finger and she’s given the heart that once belonged to me to someone else.

  My feet are rooted in place in the sand as she makes her way towards me, my eyes locked to hers like I’m in a fucking trance. She finally stops right in front of me and an ocean breeze flutters through her hair, blasting the smell of her skin right into my face. My knees go weak and I shake myself out of my daze, remembering how pissed I am at her.

  “I hear congratulations are in order,” I tell her sarcastically.

  “Screw. You,” she replies, crossing her arms in front of her and cocking her hip to the side, almost like she’s gearing up for battle.

  I smirk just to piss her off, crossing my own arms and silently wishing she didn’t look so fucking hot throwing attitude at me.

  “Awww, thanks for the offer, sweetheart, but I’m pretty sure you have someone else to do that job for you now.”

  A muscle ticks in her jaw as she clenches her teeth. I know I’m being a dick, but I can’t help it.

  “You are such an asshole,” she growls.

  She fucking GROWLS at me and my dick wakes up and takes notice. Why in the hell does her attitude turn me on so much? It’s almost like the anger I’ve worked so damn hard to contain for the last year transferred over to Lucy while I was gone. While I’m doing my best not to completely lose it with her, she doesn’t give a shit. She’s letting her rage flow right through her and apparently has no qualms about directing it at me.

  Which only makes me want to fuck it all right out of her.

  “Well, you don’t have to worry about dealing with this asshole anymore. You’ll be married to a new one soon enough,” I tell her in a calm voice, even though my emotions are raging out of control.

  I want to yell.

  I want to argue.

  I want to pick her up, toss her over my shoulder and drag her ass back to my cave like a Neanderthal where I can remind her exactly who the fuck she belongs to.

  Mine, Goddammit!

  Feeling the familiar rage boiling just beneath the surface, I take a deep breath, tamp down the caveman bullshit and settle, once again, on snark. “Did you come down here to show me your ring, Luce?” I ask, emphasizing the horrible fucking nickname I’d heard Shit-for-Brains-Ford call her. What kind of asshole doesn’t realize exactly how that sounds?

  She uncrosses her arms, throws them up in the air in frustration and makes a noise that’s somewhere between a scream and a snarl. “Why are you so fucking infuriating? Maybe if you’d stuck around a little longer this afternoon instead of running away like a damn child who didn’t want to share his toys, you would have seen me throw that stupid engagement ring at Stanford’s face!”

  I open my mouth in shock and try to speak, but all that comes out are a few unintelligible, stuttered syllables. She doesn’t even give me time to make sense of what she just told me before she’s off on another tirade.

  “You are always running away or shutting down when things get hard and I’m so fucking sick of it!” she shouts angrily. “Sending me all those damn journal pages, making me REMEMBER and making me miss what we had and then, what? When things get a little difficult, you just give up? You just walk away without a fight? A-fucking-gain?”

  “Lu—”

  “SHUT UP!” she interrupts. “Just shut up and let me finish!”

  My dick is about two seconds away from ripping right through the material of my black cargo shorts with each word she
shouts, so I put my hands up in surrender and let her continue.

  “What was the point of coming back here, making me relive all of those fucking memories if you weren’t going to really put up a fight? Do you even want me or do you just hate it that someone else does? You don’t want anyone else fishing in your damn pond, but you seem to forget that YOU tossed me back in that fucking water! You always said you’d find your way back to me and you FUCKING LIED!”

  She shoulders past me and storms off, away from me and everyone on the beach waiting for fireworks. Taking Trip’s words to heart, I remove my head from my ass and charge after her. She’s moving so fast that I have to jog to catch up with her, the darkness of the beach practically swallowing her up as she moves further and further away from the bonfires and the crowds of people. She suddenly makes a beeline for the water and splashes into the surf, ignoring me as I shout her name and follow behind her. I stop when the water is up to my shins, but she keeps going until she’s beyond the cresting waves and standing chest-deep in the ocean.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I shout to her as she slowly turns around to face me.

  “Throwing myself back in the fucking pond, hoping you’ll get the damn hint and catch me!” she yells back.

  It only takes two seconds for my brain to catch up to what she’s saying.

  I move my feet, wading through the water as the waves crash against my waist until I make it out to her.

  “So, you DO have a brain,” she says sarcastically.

  It’s my turn to growl. “Shut up.”

  Grabbing onto her face, I pull her towards me and crash my lips against hers. She immediately parts her lips and moans into my mouth when I slide my tongue against hers. Moving my hands away from her face, they splash into the water and I reach for her hips, clutching onto them tightly and lifting her up to pull her against me. Her tongue moves deeper into my mouth and her legs wrap around my waist as I palm her ass under the water.

  The kiss grows frantic as we move our mouths faster and push our tongues deeper. Lucy’s hands slide through my hair, clenching handfuls in her fists when I bite down on her bottom lip. She rocks her hips against me and I grab onto the edges of her thong, snapping the thin strings and pulling it away from the heat of her. She looks up at me in shock before the heat returns to her eyes, burning stronger than before, and she anchors her body around mine, using the muscles in her thighs to pull me closer as she presses her lips to mine once again.

  The water laps around us as I brace my feet into the sand and we sink a few inches deeper into the ocean each time the tide ebbs and flows. Reaching between us, I quickly unbutton my shorts and push them down enough to free my cock, lining it up with her body. Even submerged in water, I can still feel her slick heat against the head of my dick as I slowly inch my way inside of her.

  Lucy pulls her mouth away from my lips and rests her forehead against mine, breathing heavily and rocking her hips to push me deeper.

  “I will ALWAYS fucking fight for you, Lucy,” I promise as I dig my fingers deeper into her hips and pull her body down a little more on my cock.

  She whimpers softly and I kiss her nose and her cheeks, holding myself still halfway inside of her, taking a few breaths to calm down and get used to feeling her around me again. It’s been so fucking long. Too fucking long since I was here, where I was always meant to be.

  “I’m sorry I went away, but I DID find my way back to you and I’m never fucking leaving again.”

  Thrusting my hips hard, I push inside of Lucy until I’m as deep as I can get. We groan together, but it’s still not enough. It will never be enough with Lucy.

  “It’s always been you. It will ALWAYS, only be you,” I whisper as I shift my hips and slide in and out of her as fast as I can in the water.

  Her ankles lock together against my ass and she rocks her hips against me. My hands move back to her ass and I grab it tightly, pulling her up and down on my cock. The water splashes around us with the force of our movements and I’m reminded for the thousandth time what a fool I was for walking away from her. No matter how hard I tried to shut her out when I was going through my shit, this was always where we communicated the best, where we fit together perfectly. The darkness, the pain, the nightmares, they always went away when I was inside Lucy, feeling her tighten around me and bringing me to my knees.

  She grinds against me, rubbing her clit against my groin and I stop thrusting and hold my cock deep inside of her, making tight circles with my hips, the exact way I know she likes it, her whimpers and moans of pleasure letting me know that at least THIS hasn’t changed.

  An explosion in the sky blocks out the sound of the waves and my body jerks in Lucy’s arms. My heart starts beating faster and I feel panic begin to overwhelm me until Lucy presses her hands to my face and pulls my eyes up to meet hers, even though I can barely see them because it’s pitch black out here in the ocean away from everyone else.

  “It’s okay, it’s just the fireworks,” she tells me softly, pulling her body up the length of my cock and then sliding right back down.

  My body immediately relaxes as another loud boom echoes around us, followed by a shower of colorful sparks far above our heads. The fireworks continue high above us, each bright explosion lighting up Lucy’s face as I push and pull my cock out of her and she moves right along with me. I stare at her face, counting each freckle, and I get lost in the sparkle of her eyes reflected with every firework until we’re moving faster, panting harder and clutching onto each other tighter.

  She doesn’t move her eyes away from mine as her body tightens around me and she comes with my name on her lips. Wrapping my arms around her, I hold her close to me as I pump and thrust and chant her name as I follow right behind her, coming harder than I have in a over a year, when I just had the memory of Lucy and my hand to get by.

  Staying locked together in the water, I turn us around so we can watch the rest of the fireworks out over the water, feeling like I’m finally home, even though I’ve been here for almost two months.

  “Fisher?” she calls my name quietly after a few moments.

  Looking down at her, I’m a little surprised to find her scowling up at me. “Yes?” I answer tentatively.

  “Don’t ever call me Luce again. Ever,” she answers.

  I can’t help the laughter that erupts from deep within my chest as I lean my forehead against hers and whisper, “Ok, Lucy in the sky with diamonds.”

  Chapter 33

  Lucy

  Present Day

  “So, what you’re saying is, you just used me for sex?” Fisher asks with a laugh.

  I laugh right along with him, so happy to hear the sound that I can’t even bother being pissed off anymore at what his father said to me earlier.

  “You can thank your asshole father for that,” I inform him, pulling a towel tighter around my shoulders and inching closer to the fireplace.

  After our little romp in the ocean, we snuck out of the water during the grand finale. Even though we were far enough away from the crowd on the beach that there weren’t any fires or lights illuminating us, I still didn’t want to take the chance of someone seeing us, so we made our exit while everyone’s eyes were glued to the sky in the opposite direction. We held hands and jogged through the empty town, laughing the entire way in our sopping wet clothing, thankful that everyone was down at the beach and wouldn’t see us running through the streets like a couple of teenagers afraid of getting caught for doing something naughty.

  Even though we did. Something very, very naughty and hot and beautiful and so amazing that my body still feels like it’s on fire. My anger over Jefferson’s insinuations festered all afternoon, eventually pushing me to go to the beach and confront Fisher. I’m certain my ex-father-in-law would be none too pleased to learn that he played a major role in getting us over one hurdle and pushing us to finally do something about what’s going on between us.

  When we got back to the inn, I grabbed us a couple of
towels while Fisher lit a fire in the fireplace in the front room and we’ve been curled up on the floor getting dry and talking since then. It’s nice being alone at the inn. Even though the fireworks are finished, people will still stay down at the beach, sitting by their fires, making s’mores and toasting the holiday.

  “I’m sorry he’s such a dick,” Fisher says with a sigh, grabbing onto my hips and sliding me across the floor in between his bent knees. I curl back against his chest and extend my legs out straight in front of me, wiggling my toes a few inches from the fire to warm them up.

  “It’s not your fault. I’m just so damn tired of him bringing up money. I don’t understand why he feels the need to rub it in my face that I have less than him and I REALLY don’t understand how you’re related to him,” I explain.

  He laughs, wrapping his arms around me and resting his chin on top of my head. I lay my arms on top of his and sigh contentedly when he continues speaking.

  “It probably helps that I was mostly raised by my mother and Trip and they wouldn’t let his asshole behavior rub off on me. Well, not completely. I’m still an asshole, but it seems like I’m only an asshole when it comes to you.”

  We stare into the fire quietly for a few seconds before he asks the question I know has been burning a hole in his brain since I shouted it at him on the beach.

  “So, you really threw that ring back, huh?” he asks quietly.

  I smile to myself and snuggle closer to him.

  “I did. You really should have stuck around for a few more minutes. I also took my shirt off and chucked it at his face.”

  A shocked laugh flies out of Fisher’s mouth. “So THAT’S what Trip was talking about when he told me I missed out on the fireworks. Please, tell me everything, in complete detail.”